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Monday, May 16, 2011

Musings On A Munday Lack of Courtesy or Lack of Common Sense?

Is lifting/borrowing/coping documents and photos from one Ancestry.com tree to add to your own without contacting the tree owner a lack of courtesy or a lack of common sense? Those "lifters" do realize that the documents and photos were added by another individual. They don't think that Ancestry.com put them there do they? Like maybe the shaking leaf appeared and so did a document?

I added a handful of photos and documents to my Ancestry.com tree last year. My thought was that surely somebody would contact me once they see this great information. That didn't happen. Don't they wonder if there is more where that came from? Don't they wonder how we are related?

One person lifted a German church record from my tree and added it to theirs. This church record is from 1788 in Klepsau, Baden, Germany. It took me a long, long time to find this record (scrolling, scrolling, scrolling through microfilm) and took me a long time to eventually get it translated. The devil in me wants to email this person, that placed in on their tree, and ask "do you even have a clue as to what that document is or says???" Well, I did email them...twice but have received no response. I let them know that my Ancestry.com tree is what I use as a sort of "working" tree and that I have so much more than what is online.

At this point I'm wondering if they are really that rude as to not answer after I've reach out to them twice. I also wonder if maybe they are embarrassed to have been "caught" lifting. After reviewing their tree I can see I have a lot to offer them but if they don't have the comment sense to reply to my emails there is nothing I can do about it.

It's not the borrowing of the documents I have a problem with. I do that myself. But I never borrow without contacting the owner and letting them know we have a common ancestor and I am happy to share what information I have.

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